voter turnout

Early voting is now underway in Ohio, which has seen strong Republican wins in the last two midterm election cycles. But many are wondering about the impact of an increase in registered voters in a midterm year that looks good nationwide for Democrats.

Cathy Adamescue of Columbus is planning a trip next month, so she decided to get voting out of the way early.

“I probably could have voted on voting day, but I wasn’t really sure, and I did not want to miss an opportunity to vote,” she said.

Tuesday, Sept. 25 is National Voter Registration Day. Some groups are working hard to encourage voters to register and cast ballots in the midterm election this November. But midterms are not always a big draw. Professor Dave Cohen, assistant director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, talks about how this year is shaping up.

The final early voting numbers are in and Ohio has seen a larger turnout heading into this year's primary than in the last gubernatorial primary four years ago.

It’s easy to guess that this year’s hotly contested races for the Republican and Democratic nomination for governor contributed to the larger turnout. There's also a state constitutional amendment that would change how Ohio's congressional districts are drawn.

We’re less than a week from Election Day, and Ohio voters are on pace for a bigger turnout than the May primary in 2014.

More than 128,000 people have cast ballots already, and Secretary of State Jon Husted says there are still more than 90,000 absentee ballots that were requested but have yet to be sent back. This outpaces the 2014 primary, when nearly 183,000 ballots were requested.

Though there were two statewide issues, several big mayoral and local elections and more than 1500 levies and other issues on ballots across Ohio, Election Night 2017 didn’t bring out voters in big numbers.

More than 385,000 Ohioans voted early – that was a little more than in 2015, when the ballot included a controversial issue to legalize marijuana and set up 10 exclusive growing sites. But Secretary of State Jon Husted said in person turnout was far below what might have been expected.